


Time to Rise Above

by littlebitlostandfound



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23768188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlebitlostandfound/pseuds/littlebitlostandfound
Summary: A collection of untitled Tumblr prompts.
Relationships: Anne Boleyn/Catherine Parr
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	1. Naps

It was a lazy Monday afternoon. Parr had put Mae down for a nap and after a while, reckoned she needed one as well. After making sure that she was fully asleep, Parr tiptoes towards Anne’s room and knocks softly.

“Anne? It’s Cathy,” Parr calls out, trying to stifle a yawn. Anne opens the door, smiling as she hooks her arm around her waist to lead her inside. Anne can hear the exhaustion in her voice and knew she was bound to give in at any moment.

“You look absolutely tired, love,” Anne comments, sitting down on the other side of the bed and patting the space next to her. Parr gravitates towards it and curls up next to Anne, who positioned herself so they’d be lying down facing each other. Parr snakes her arm around Anne’s middle and pulls her closer, nuzzling her nose into her neck.

“Mmhmm,” Parr breathes. “Been a bit of a week.“

"I can tell,” Anne plays with the ends of her girlfriend’s hair, coiling it around her fingers and releasing them with a satisfying boing. “Mae doing good?”

“She’s perfect, put her down for a nap just a couple minutes ago.” Parr smiles at the thought of her daughter. Her breath tickles Anne’s neck, and the hairs on her arms stand on end. “And Liz?”

Anne laughs softly. “As wonderful as she’ll ever be. Asked about us the other day, actually.”

“How’d that go?” Parr’s eyes were already closed, and Anne propped herself up, resting her head on her hand. She started tracing random patterns on her arm, then letters– _I L O V E Y O U._

“Told her I was dating you, didn’t ask much about it after.” Anne kisses the top of her head. “Have you told Mae?”

As if on cue, she hears three soft knocks on the door before it swings open, revealing an obviously distressed little girl clutching a rag doll to her chest.

“Hey, sweet girl,” Anne croons, keeping her voice low so as not to wake Parr. She motions for her to walk over to her side, sitting up against the headboard so she can lift her up on her lap. “Wanna tell me what happened?“

“Bad dream, couldn’t find Mama,” Mae’s voice was shaky, and she saw that she had already been crying before she went out to look for her.

“You know she wouldn’t leave the house without telling you, right?” Mae nods, resting her head against Anne’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” Mae whispers, playing with Anne’s hands that were on her tummy, trying to soothe her back to sleep.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, darling, no one’s at fault,” Anne reassures her. She smooths out the stray hairs that stick out from her head before reclining lower. “Your mum’s just here to take a nap like you did, and should still be doing, actually.”

“Can I stay?” Mae asks, and without another word, Anne places her in between her and Parr, who wraps an arm around the both of them in her sleep.

“Mama tells me she loves you a lot,” Mae yawns, turning on her side to face Anne. She gives her a tiny kiss on the nose. “I love you.”

Anne’s heart feels like it’s blooming in her chest. She looks up at a sleeping Parr, her love, and then down again at Mae.

“You too, Mae. I love you, too.”


	2. Build

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the prompt: "This is exactly what it looks like."

“Are you sure this is correct?”

Parr looks at the IKEA manual in her hands then at the dresser in front of her. They’ve already had all the separate pieces put together but they couldn’t get it to look as aligned as it did in the picture.

“Yeah, see, this is exactly what it looks like.” Anne tilts her head to the side, trying to convice her eyes that there was nothing wrong with what they had built. There’s a small space in between the drawers and they couldn’t figure out if they screwed the parts wrong or if they were just given a smaller piece than what was indicated.

“I don’t know, Anne, it looks pretty lopsided to me,” Parr huffs, then squints. She switches the top and bottom drawer and they clicked like the final pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. “Aha!”

“Why don’t they ever put numbers on the parts, that would make this so much easier,” Anne grumbles, putting the screwdriver down and offering her hands out to Parr to pull her up from the floor. “Good job, love.”

Parr beams, kissing her cheek. Stepping back with a nervous but excited smile, she walks over to her closet and pulls out one of Anne’s jumpers that she’s never bothered to return and transfers it in the newly made dresser.

“Since you’re in my room so often, I got you a dresser to keep your things in.” Parr says, not quite meeting her girlfriend’s eyes. It was a big step in their relationship and even though she struggled verbally to let Anne know how much she had meant to her, she always made it a point to show it.

Parr feels a curled finger tugging her chin upwards, and she was met with Anne’s soft, thankful eyes.

“I don’t tell you how much I love you quite enough,” Anne whispers, leaning down to give Parr a gentle kiss. “Thank you for this.”

“You’re welcome, and I love you too,” Parr chuckles, the slight anxiety gnawing at her heart starting to dissipate. “Come on, let’s put this dresser to good use.”


	3. Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on the prompt: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mum."

_3am._

Parr knows that it’s late, that it’s not healthy to keep staying up, but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to stop once she’s started writing. She looks over her shoulder at her bed to check on her daughter every once in a while when she needs a quick break, always promises five more minutes, but time slips by quicker than she wanted it to.

A couple more minutes pass. It was a subtle noise, but she hears her daughter rustling under the covers and that was more than enough for her to put her pen down and rush over to her sit by her side.

Mae’s eyebrows were scrunched together and it would’ve been adorable if she hadn’t looked so distressed. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead and tendrils of hair were sticking to her neck as she tossed and groaned in her sleep.

“Mama,” Mae whimpered, tears escaping her closed eyes. Parr immediately scoops her into her arms, cradling her on her lap as if she was a newborn. She was wiping her sweat off with her hand as she kissed her forehead repeatedly, trying to fight whatever was in her daughter’s head.

“Mama’s right here, darling,” Parr whispered in her ear, gently rocking from side to side. “Come on, Mae, wake up for me please.”

Mae thrashes around in her arms, her tiny fists striking the air and all Parr could do was hold her tighter, whispering in her ear and tapping her cheek to wake her daughter up.

“Stop, Mama, don’t,” Mae sputters out in short breaths, and Parr is almost at the verge of breaking seeing her little Mae suffering through a night terror.

“Shhh, it’s alright, Mae, I got you,” Parr soothes, and Mae wakes up with a start, gasping for air. It takes her a while to gather her bearings, but when she realized she was in her mother’s arms, she bursts into tears, clinging to her as if she would disappear.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mama,” Mae hiccups, and Parr rubs circles on her daughter’s back, trying to calm her down. “I wanted to run and go to you because you were hurt but I can’t move my legs and, and,–”

“Oh, baby,” Parr breathes, trying to keep the tears at bay. “We’re here at home in our room, see? I’m not hurt at all. We’re safe and I have you with me.”

Mae’s cries are softer now. Parr presses Mae’s ear to her chest, breathing deeply to let her feel her heartbeat, let her know she was real.

“Here, feel that?”

Mae gives the tiniest of nods, sniffling softly.

“Mama’s right here, okay? Nothing to worry about.” Parr reassures her, kissing the top of her head. “Do you want to try sleeping again?”

Mae nods again, but looks up at her this time. “Stay with me, please.”

Parr’s heart breaks again at her words. She squeezes her tight before laying down with Mae under the covers. She puts a hand on her stomach and rubs small circles with her thumb, gently soothing her back to sleep.

“I’ll do better, I promise,” Parr whispers, mostly to herself. She lets the tears fall. “Mama’s gonna do better.”


	4. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne is overwhelmed by Christmas festivities.

Anne felt like she was in a frenzy. 

She still had gifts to buy, cookies to bake, and with all the noise and music and scents constantly surrounding her everywhere she went, it was starting to become too much to bear. 

“Hey, Anne, do you think you could help me out with decorating the mantle later?” Jane asked mindlessly, not noticing that Anne had her elbows deep in icing the sugar cookies she promised to make for Katherine. She hummed a non-committal response, and Jane approached her cautiously, sensing her distress. 

“Love, are you alright?” Jane leaned over on the other side, and Anne huffed, throwing the piping bag on the counter. 

“No,” Anne rasped, tears pricking her corner of her eyes. “It’s just…this Christmas thing, I didn’t realize how stressful everything is.”

“Oh, Anne,” Jane lamented, shooting her a sympathetic look. Jane relished in the festivities and loved the feeling of being productive and needed, especially when the output lifted everyone’s holiday spirits. “No one’s forcing you to do anything if you feel that it’s too much.” 

“That’s the thing, Jane, this season makes me feel I have to do them even if I don’t want to,” Anne sobs, running her hands through her hair in frustration only to find out later that her fingers were still dusted in flour. “I need to make sure everything looks perfect or else people will talk or think I didn’t try hard enough and, and–” 

“Breathe, love,” Jane quickly walks over to Anne’s side, rubbing her back soothingly. “You’re doing a stellar job, but also I hope you don’t forget that you’re always going to have a choice, and it’s so okay if you choose to opt out.”

Anne nods, wiping her tears with her sleeve. “Thanks, Jane. I needed that.”

“Anytime, Anne. So, how about we let these cookies go for a bit and maybe take a quick nap?” 

“I’d like that.” 


End file.
